Workflow management method and workflow management apparatus

ABSTRACT

A disclosed workflow management method includes a workflow starting step of determining a workflow based on one or more tags attached to a workflow document, attaching a status tag and a participant tag to the workflow document, and starting the workflow; and a review/approval step of requesting review and/or approval of the workflow document based on the status tag and the participant tag and updating the status tag and the participant tag after the review and/or approval.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of and claims thebenefit of priority under U.S.C. §120 from U.S. application Ser. No.11/937,128, filed Nov. 8, 2007, which is based on and claims the benefitof priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 from prior Japanese PriorityApplication No. 2006-305429 filed on Nov. 10, 2006, and JapanesePriority Application No. 2007-271529 filed on Oct. 18, 2007. The entirecontents of each of the above are hereby incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a workflow management methodand a workflow management apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

Various types of workflow systems for electronically reviewing andapproving documents in an organization such as a company have beenproposed (see, for example, patent document 1).

In a conventional workflow system, a creator (or a drafter) of adocument determines a workflow by referring to rules in one'sorganization and assigns participants to the workflow who review and/orapprove the document in sequence.

-   [Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No.    2006-65874

A conventional workflow system as described above has the followingproblems:

(1) It is troublesome for a creator of a document to determine aworkflow by referring to rules in one's organization.

(2) A conventional workflow system normally uses a dedicatedarchitecture for handling workflow documents and tasks. Such a workflowsystem

-   -   Requires complicated maintenance.    -   Requires a dedicated client application.    -   Lacks in flexibility and scalability.    -   Cannot cooperate with an existing document management system        having no workflow function.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a workflow managementmethod and a workflow management apparatus that solve or reduce one ormore problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the relatedart.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a workflow managementmethod including a workflow starting step of determining a workflowbased on one or more tags attached to a workflow document, attaching astatus tag and a participant tag to the workflow document, and startingthe workflow; and a review/approval step of requesting review and/orapproval of the workflow document based on the status tag and theparticipant tag and updating the status tag and the participant tagafter the review and/or approval.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a workflowmanagement apparatus including a workflow starting unit configured todetermine a workflow based on one or more tags attached to a workflowdocument, to attach a status tag and a participant tag to the workflowdocument, and to start the workflow; and a review/approval unitconfigured to request review and/or approval of the workflow documentbased on the status tag and the participant tag and to update the statustag and the participant tag after the review and/or approval.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a drawing illustrating a configuration of an exemplaryworkflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A through 2E are drawings illustrating variations of theexemplary workflow system;

FIG. 3 is a table showing an exemplary metadata DB;

FIG. 4 is a table showing an exemplary tag definition DB;

FIG. 5 is a table showing an exemplary workflow DB;

FIG. 6 is a table showing an exemplary document registration DB;

FIG. 7 is a table showing an exemplary organization/authenticationinformation DB;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of a process in the exemplaryworkflow system;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process via a network;

FIG. 10 is a drawing illustrating a process by a user;

FIG. 11 is a sequence chart (part 1) showing exemplary steps ofregistering a workflow document through to starting a workflow;

FIG. 12 is a sequence chart (part 2) showing exemplary steps ofregistering a workflow document through to starting a workflow;

FIG. 13 is a drawing illustrating an exemplary user interface forregistering a workflow document;

FIG. 14 is a drawing illustrating an exemplary user interface forconfirming a workflow;

FIG. 15 is a drawing used to describe how RSS feeds are filtered in anRSS delivery process;

FIGS. 16A through 16H show examples of RSS feed requests sent from anRSS reader of a user terminal to a metadata management unit;

FIGS. 17A and 17B are drawings illustrating source code and a display ofan RSS feed;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are drawings illustrating source code and a display ofanother RSS feed;

FIG. 19 is a sequence chart showing an exemplary review process;

FIG. 20 is a drawing illustrating an exemplary user interface forreviewing a workflow document;

FIG. 21A is a drawing illustrating an exemplary configuration of a tagmanagement unit for automatically presenting tags;

FIG. 21B is a table showing an exemplary tag management DB;

FIG. 22 is a sequence chart showing an exemplary process of registeringa workflow document;

FIG. 23 is a drawing showing another exemplary user interface forregistering a workflow document; and

FIG. 24 shows code describing relationships between tags and buttonsrepresenting document types and organizational units.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below withreference to the accompanying drawings.

<System Configuration>

FIG. 1 is a drawing illustrating a configuration of an exemplaryworkflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the exemplary workflow system includes a metadatamanagement unit 1 that manages tags attached to workflow documents (i.e.documents to be circulated and reviewed and/or approved in workflows) asmetadata and is a central unit of the exemplary workflow system; aworkflow determining unit 2 for determining workflows according torequests from the metadata management unit 1; a document registrationunit 3 for storing information on workflow documents; an authenticationunit 4 for authenticating users according to requests from the metadatamanagement unit 1 or the document registration unit 3; and userterminals 5 (5A, 5B, . . . ) such as personal computers (PCs) operatedby users of the exemplary workflow system. In the exemplary workflowsystem, the above components are connected to each other via a network.

The metadata management unit 1 includes a user request handling unit 11for handling requests from users; a metadata managing unit 12 formanaging metadata; a UI generating unit 13 for generating userinterfaces (UI; e.g. screens) to be displayed on the user terminals 5;an RSS generating unit 14 for generating and sending metadata ofworkflow documents in an RSS format in response to requests from theuser terminals 5 (RSS stands for Resource Description Framework (RDF)Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication); a taganalysis unit 15 for analyzing tags attached to workflow documents; aworkflow determination requesting unit 16 for requesting the workflowdetermining unit 2 to determine workflows; a workflow status managementunit 17 for managing statuses of workflows; a metadata database (DB) 18for storing tags attached to workflow documents as metadata; and a tagdefinition database (DB) 19 for storing definitions of tags. The RSSgenerating unit 14 includes a request receiving unit 141 for receivingRSS feed requests via the user request handling unit 11; a tag searchunit 142 for causing the metadata managing unit 12 to search themetadata DB 18 for workflow documents based on tags; a metadatagenerating unit 143 for generating metadata (RSS data or RSS feeds) ofworkflow documents found by the tag search unit 142; and a responsesending unit 144 for sending the generated RSS feeds to the requestinguser terminals 5.

The workflow determining unit 2 includes a workflow server 21 forresponding to accesses via a network and a workflow database (DB) 22 forstoring workflow definitions.

The document registration unit 3 includes a document registration WWWserver 31 for responding to accesses via a network and a documentregistration database (DB) 32 for storing information on workflowdocuments. The document registration WWW server 31 may be provided foreach document type.

The authentication unit 4 includes an authentication server 41 forresponding to accesses via a network and an organization/authenticationinformation database (DB) 42 for storing organization information(indicating divisions, departments, etc., where users belong) andauthentication information of users. The organization/authenticationinformation DB 42 may be divided into an organization DB and anauthentication DB.

Each of the user terminals 5 includes an RSS reader 51 for receiving RSSfeeds and a browser 52 for browsing pages indicated by links in thereceived RSS feeds.

FIGS. 2A through 2E show variations of the exemplary workflow system.FIG. 2A shows a variation where the metadata management unit 1, theworkflow determining unit 2, and the authentication unit 4 are providedseparately. FIG. 2B shows a variation where the metadata management unit1 and the authentication unit 4 are integrated. FIG. 2C shows avariation where the workflow determining unit 2 and the authenticationunit 4 are integrated. FIG. 2D shows a variation where the metadatamanagement unit 1, the workflow determining unit 2, and theauthentication unit 4 are integrated. FIG. 2E shows a variation wherethe metadata management unit 1 and the workflow determining unit 2 areintegrated.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the metadata DB 18. Each record in themetadata DB 18 includes an ID for identifying the record, a document IDfor identifying the corresponding workflow document, and one or moretags attached to the workflow document. A tag is a part of metadata.Metadata include information on a workflow document such as a documentURL and tags.

Examples of tags relating to a workflow include: tags indicating typesof tasks or documents, e.g. “Invention_Report”, “Technical_Report”, and“Request_For_Decision”; tags indicating organizational units, e.g.“XYZ_Laboratory” and “ABC_Department”; tags indicating informal groups,e.g. “XXX_Subcommittee” and “YYY_StudyGroup”; and tags indicatingstatuses, e.g. “In_Preparation”, “In_Preparation:name”,“Requesting_Review”, “Approved:name”, “Rejected”, “To:name”, “CC:name”,and “To:archive”. The exemplary workflow system may be configured suchthat tags indicating organizational units cannot be attached to aworkflow document unless the users are authenticated.

Tags indicating the statuses of workflows and workflow documents arepreferably protected from being altered without authorization or bymistake. Therefore, in this embodiment, tags indicating the statuses ofworkflows and workflow documents are treated as system tags that areautomatically generated and altered by the exemplary workflow system andcannot be altered by the users. Examples of system tags include“Creator:name”, “Creator:name(2006-08-31/23:59:59)”, “Altered:name”,“Altered:name(2006-08-31/23:59:59)”, “To:name”, “CC:name”,“Requesting_Review”, “Reviewed:name”,“Reviewed:name(2006-08-31/23:59:59)”, “Requesting_Approval”,“Approved:name”, “Approved:name(2006-08-31/23:59:59)”, “Rejected”,“Rejected:name”, and “Rejected:name(2006-08-31/23:59:59)”.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the tag definition DB 19. Each record in thetag definition DB 19 includes an ID for identifying the record, a tag,and the definition of the tag. In FIG. 4, each definition is written ina human-readable format. In actual implementation, however, eachdefinition is expressed, for example, by a function executable by theworkflow system.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the workflow DB 22. Each record in theworkflow DB 22 includes one or more tags, a corresponding workflow, anda description of the workflow. Thus, in the workflow DB 22, workflowsare associated with a tag or a combination of tags. This configurationmakes it possible to assign multiple workflows to the same tag. Also,the descriptions of workflows make it easier to maintain the workflowsin the workflow DB 22.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the document registration DB 32. Each recordin the document registration DB 32 includes an ID for identifying therecord, a document name, and a URL indicating the storage location ofthe document.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the organization/authentication informationDB 42. Each record in the organization/authentication information DBincludes an ID for identifying the record, a user name, anorganizational unit where the user belongs, a position of the user, anda password for authentication.

<Operation>

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of a process in the exemplaryworkflow system.

As shown in FIG. 8, a creator (or a drafter) creates a workflow documenton one of the user terminals 5 (step S1), and attaches a tag or tags fordetermining a workflow to the created workflow document to register theworkflow document in the workflow system (step S2).

The workflow system determines a workflow based on the tags attached bythe creator (step S3) and attaches a participant tag indicating thefirst workflow participant and a status tag indicating a workflow statusto the workflow document after confirmation by the creator (step S4).

Then, the workflow system delivers the metadata (including a title, adescription, a URL, etc.) of the workflow document as an RSS feed to thefirst workflow participant (step S5).

When receiving the RSS feed, the first workflow participant reviewsand/or approves the workflow document (step S6). Then, the workflowsystem updates the status tag based on the result of the review and/orapproval, and updates the participant tag to indicate the next workflowparticipant if there is one (step S7). If there is another workflowparticipant, the workflow system repeats steps S5 through S7.

If no workflow participant is left or the workflow document is rejectedby a workflow participant, the workflow system terminates the workflow(step S8).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process via a network.

As shown in FIG. 9, the creator attaches one or more tags to a workflowdocument and requests the metadata management unit 1 to register theworkflow document (step S11). The metadata management unit 1 causes theauthentication unit 4 to authenticate the creator (step S12) and causesthe workflow determining unit 2 to determine a workflow for the workflowdocument (step S13). Then, the creator uploads the workflow document tothe document registration unit 3 (step S14).

Meanwhile, when receiving an RSS feed from the metadata management unit1, each of users A, B, and C (workflow participants) reviews and/orapproves the workflow document registered in the document registrationunit 3, and returns the result to the metadata management unit 1 (stepsS15 and S16). When each of the users A, B, and C accesses the documentregistration unit 3, the authentication unit 4 authenticates each of theusers A, B, and C (step S17).

FIG. 10 is a drawing illustrating a process by a user. FIG. 10illustrates, in more detail, interactions of the user A, B, or C withthe metadata management unit 1 and the document registration unit 3shown in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, the interactions are illustrated in asimplified manner as also shown in the right side of FIG. 10.

As shown in FIG. 10, a user XX receives an RSS feed from the metadatamanagement unit 1 with the RSS reader 51 of the user terminal 5 (stepS21), browses a workflow document registered in the documentregistration unit 3 by following a document link in the RSS feed withthe browser 52 (step S22), and returns a review result to the metadatamanagement unit 1 by using the browser 52 (step S23).

FIGS. 11 and 12 are sequence charts showing exemplary steps ofregistering a document through to starting a workflow.

As shown in FIG. 11, a creator sends a request for registration of aworkflow document to the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 from the user terminal 5 (step S101). The user requesthandling unit 11 requests the UI generating unit 13 to generate aregistration UI (step S102), receives the created registration UI (stepS103), and sends the registration UI to the user terminal 5 (step S104).FIG. 13 shows an example of a registration UI. The registration UIincludes a document name entry field 501 for entering the document nameof a workflow document to be registered, a document URL entry field 502for entering a URL indicating the registration destination of theworkflow document (e.g. a URL indicating a location on the documentregistration WWW server 31), a tag entry field 503 for entering tagsused to determine a workflow for the workflow document (tags may beentered directly in the field or may be selected from a tag selectionfield 504), the tag selection field 504 providing a list of tags to beentered in the tag entry field 503, and a “Display WF” button 505 forsearching for and displaying a workflow based on the conditionsspecified in the above fields.

Referring back to FIG. 11, the creator enters a document name, a URL,and tags on the registration UI using the user terminal 5 and clicks onthe “Display WF” button 505 (requests to register the workflow documentand to display a workflow) (step S105). Then, the user request handlingunit 11 of the metadata management unit 1 sends a request forregistration of the workflow document together with the document nameand the URL to the document registration WWW server 31 of the documentregistration unit 3 (step S106).

The document registration server 31 requests the authentication server41 of the authentication unit 4 to authenticate the creator. Whenrequested, the authentication server 41 requests the UI generating unit13 to generate an authentication UI (step S108). The UI generating unit13 generates an authentication UI and sends it to the user requesthandling unit 11 (step S109). Then, the user request handling unit 11sends the authentication UI to the user terminal 5 (step S110).

When the creator enters an ID and a password on the authentication UIusing the user terminal 5 (step S111), the user request handling unit 11of the metadata management unit 1 sends the entered authenticationinformation to the authentication server 41 of the authentication unit 4(step S112). The authentication server 41 checks the authenticationinformation against information stored in theorganization/authentication information DB 42 (steps S113 and S114), andif the creator is a legitimate user, sends the authentication result tothe document registration WWW server 31 of the document registrationunit 3 (step S115). The document registration WWW server 31 requests theuser terminal 5 to upload the workflow document via the user requesthandling unit 11 of the metadata management unit 1 (steps S116 andS117).

In response to the request, the user terminal 5 sends the workflowdocument to the document registration WWW server 31 of the documentregistration unit 3 (step S118). The document registration WWW server 31registers the workflow document in the document registration DB 32 (stepS119). Then, the document registration WWW server sends a registrationreport and an ID of the registered workflow document (document ID) tothe user request handling unit 11 of the metadata management unit 1(step S120).

Referring to FIG. 12, the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 sends the document ID and the tags to the metadatamanaging unit 12 (step S121). The metadata managing unit 12 registersthe document ID and the tags in the metadata DB 18 (step S122).

Next, the user request handling unit 11 sends a request to generate aworkflow together with the tags to the workflow status management unit17 (step S123). The workflow status management unit 17 sends the requestand the tags to the workflow determination requesting unit 16 (stepS124).

The workflow determination requesting unit 16 sends a request todetermine a workflow together with the tags to the workflow server 21 ofthe workflow determining unit 2 (step S125). The workflow server 21searches the workflow DB 22 based on the tags and thereby determines aworkflow (steps S126 and S127).

Then, the workflow server 21 requests the authentication server 41 ofthe authentication unit 4 to obtain information on the workflowparticipants based on a tag indicating an organizational unit (stepS128). The authentication server 41 searches theorganization/authentication information DB 42 (steps S129 and S130) andreturns the search result to the workflow server 21 of the workflowdetermining unit 2 (step S131). For example, when a tag indicates“XYZ_Laboratory” and the workflow includes a participant “leader”, theauthentication server 41 searches for a user whose organizational unitis “XYZ_Laboratory” and position is “leader”, and obtains the name ofthe user “Sato”.

The workflow server 21 sends workflow information including the searchresult to the workflow status management unit 17 (step S132). Theworkflow status management unit 17 sends the workflow information to theuser request handling unit 11 (step S133).

When receiving the workflow information, the user request handling unit11 requests the UI generating unit 13 to generate a confirmation UI(step S134). The UI generating unit 13 generates the confirmation UI(step S135) and sends it to the user terminal 5 via the user requesthandling unit 11 (step S136). FIG. 14 shows an example of a confirmationUI for confirming a workflow. The confirmation UI includes a documentname 511, a document URL 512, tags 513, workflow participants 514, a“Start WF” button 515 for starting the workflow, and a “Previous” button516 for returning to the registration UI.

Referring back to FIG. 12, when the creator clicks on the “Start WF”button 515 to start the workflow using the user terminal 5 (step S137),the user request handling unit 11 requests the tag analysis unit 15 tosend tags to be attached to the workflow document (step S138). The taganalysis unit 15 retrieves necessary tags from the tag definition DB 19(steps S139 and S140) and sends the retrieved tags to the user requesthandling unit 11 (step S141). For example, the tag analysis unit 15retrieves a workflow participants tag “WFZ:name:name: . . . ” indicatingworkflow participants, a status tag “Review_Requested” indicating thatreview of the workflow document is being requested, and a participanttag “To:name” indicating the next workflow participant.

The user request handling unit 11 sends the document ID and the tags tothe metadata managing unit 12 (step S142). The metadata managing unit 12registers the document ID and the tags in the metadata DB 18 (stepS143). Take, for example, a workflow shown in FIG. 14. When the “StartWF” button 515 is clicked on to start the workflow, the following tagsare attached to the workflow document: “Invention_Report XYZ_LaboratoryWFZ:Suzuki:Sato:Tanaka Creator:Yamada Requesting_Review To:Suzuki”.

Referring back to FIG. 12, when receiving an RSS feed request from theuser terminal 5, the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 requests the RSS generating unit 14 to generate an RSSfeed (step S144). The RSS generating unit 14 generates an RSS feed ofthe corresponding workflow document(s) and delivers it to the userterminal 5 (step S145).

FIG. 15 is a drawing used to describe how RSS feeds are filtered in anRSS delivery process. Assuming that there are three workflows ofdocuments having tags “To:userA”, “To:userB”, and “To:userC”,respectively, RSS feeds are filtered and only an RSS feed having a tag“To:userA” is delivered to the user A. RSS feeds may also be filtered bytags indicating document types such as “Invention_Report” and“Technical_Report”. Thus, the exemplary workflow system of thisembodiment can handle various types of documents and tasks with the samemechanism and enables organic integration of different systems which isdifficult with a conventional workflow system.

FIGS. 16A through 16H show examples of RSS feed requests sent from theRSS reader 51 of the user terminal to the metadata management unit 1.FIG. 16A shows a first format of an RSS feed request. In FIG. 16A,“http://server/” indicates the address of a server (i.e. the metadatamanagement unit 1) sending RSS feeds, and “tag/” following“http://server/” and “/rss” at the end of the request indicate the startand end of tags used to select desired RSS feeds. Also in FIG. 16A,“[tags]” indicates a tag and “[value]” indicates a value of the tag.Specifying a tag such as “To”, which has a special meaning in theworkflow system, and its value separately in an RSS feed request makesit easier for the workflow system to analyze the tag. FIG. 16B shows anexample of the first format shown in FIG. 16A. This example requests RSSfeeds of workflow documents having a tag “To:userA”. When the requestreceiving unit 141 of the RSS generating unit 14 receives the RSS feedrequest shown in FIG. 16B, the tag search unit 142 causes the metadatamanaging unit 12 to search the metadata DB 18 based on the tag “To” andthe value “userA” and thereby identifies the corresponding workflowdocument(s). Then, the metadata generating unit 143 generates an RSSfeed of the identified workflow document(s), and the response sendingunit 144 sends the generated RSS feed to the user terminal 5.

FIG. 16C shows a second format of an RSS feed request. In FIG. 16C,“http://server/” indicates the address of a server (i.e. the metadatamanagement unit 1) sending RSS feeds, and “tag/” following“http://server/” and “/rss” at the end of the request indicate the startand end of tags used to select desired RSS feeds. In this case, “[tags]”indicates a tag or tags and no value field “[value]” is provided. FIG.16D shows a first variation of the second format where one tag “tag1” isspecified as “[tags]”, and FIG. 16E is an example of the firstvariation. This example requests RSS feeds of workflow documents havinga tag “XYZ_Laboratory”.

FIG. 16F shows a second variation of the second format where two tags“tag1” and “tag2” are specified as “[tags]”. In the second variation,“tag1” and “tag2” are separated by “%20” that is the URL encodedrepresentation of a blank character. FIG. 16G is an example of thesecond variation that requests RSS feeds of documents having a tag“XYZ_Laboratory” and a tag “Invention_Report”.

FIG. 16H shows another example of the second variation where the tag“To” and its value “userA” are separated by a blank character “%20”.This example has the same effect as that of the RSS feed request shownin FIG. 16B. When a tag, such as “To”, having a special meaning in theworkflow system is specified as “tag1”, “tag2” is not treated as a tagbut as the value of “tag1”.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are drawings illustrating source code and a display onthe user terminal 5 of an RSS feed of workflow documents having a tag“To:XYZ”. In this example, clicking on “For Review” shown in FIG. 17Bdisplays a list of workflow documents having tags “To:XYZRequesting_Review”, and clicking on “For Approval” displays a list ofworkflow documents having tags “To:XYZ Requesting_Approval”.

FIGS. 18A and 18B are drawings illustrating source code and a display onthe user terminal 5 of an RSS feed of workflow documents having tags“To:XYZ Requesting_Review”. In this case, as shown in FIG. 18B, a listof workflow documents to be reviewed by user XYZ is displayed.

FIG. 19 is a sequence chart showing an exemplary review process.

As shown in FIG. 19, when an RSS feed is sent from the RSS generatingunit 14 of the metadata management unit 1 to the user terminal 5 of areviewer (step S151), the reviewer sends a request for a workflowdocument by clicking on a document link in the RSS feed from the userterminal 5 to the document registration WWW server 31 of the documentregistration unit 3 (step S152).

The document registration WWW server 31 requests the workflow statusmanagement unit 17 to obtain information on the workflow of therequested workflow document (step S153). Then, the workflow statusmanagement unit 17 requests the tag analysis unit 15 to analyze the tagsattached the workflow document (step S154).

The tag analysis unit 15 refers to the tag definition DB 19 (steps S155and S156) and returns the analysis result (including workflow status,workflow participants, and the next step to be taken) to the workflowstatus management unit 17 (step S157). The workflow status managementunit 17 returns the workflow status to the document registration WWWserver 31 of the document registration unit 3 (step S158).

Then, the document registration server 31 requests the authenticationserver 41 of the authentication unit 4 to authenticate the reviewer(step S159). The authentication server 41 sends an authenticationrequest to the user terminal 5 (step S160). In response to theauthentication request, the reviewer sends authentication informationincluding an ID and a password to the authentication server 41 of theauthentication unit 4 (step S161).

The authentication server 41 checks the authentication informationagainst information stored in the organization/authenticationinformation DB 42 (steps S162 and S163) and returns the authenticationresult to the document registration WWW server 31 of the documentregistration unit 3 (step S164). The document registration WWW server 31sends the authentication result to the user request handling unit 11 ofthe metadata management unit 1 (step S165).

The document registration WWW server 31 retrieves the requested workflowdocument from the document registration DB 32 (steps S166 and S167) andsends the retrieved workflow document to the user terminal 5 (stepS168).

Meanwhile, the user request handling unit 11 of the metadata managementunit 1 requests the UI generating unit 13 to generate a review UI (stepS169). The UI generating unit 13 generates the review UI (step S170) andsends it to the user terminal 5 via the user request handling unit 11(step S171). FIG. 20 shows an example of a review UI. The review UIincludes a document name 521, a document URL 522, an “Open” button 523,workflow participants 524, an “Accept” button 525, and a “Reject” button526.

Referring back to FIG. 19, when the reviewer sends a review result byclicking on either the “Accept” button 525 or the “Reject” button 526(step S172), the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 receives the review result and reports the reviewresult to the workflow status management unit 17 (step S173). Theworkflow status management unit 17 requests the tag analysis unit 15 togenerate a tag corresponding to the review result (step S174).

When receiving the request, the tag analysis unit 15 refers to the tagdefinition DB 19 (steps S175) and requests the metadata managing unit 12to update the metadata of the reviewed workflow document (step S176).Then, the metadata managing unit 12 updates the metadata in the metadataDB 18 (step S177). Take, for example, a case where the tags of theworkflow document shown in FIG. 20 are “Invention_Report XYZ_LaboratoryWFZ:Suzuki:Sato:Tanaka Creator:Yamada Requesting_Review To:Suzuki”before the review. If the reviewer accepts the workflow document, thetags are updated to “Invention_Report XYZ_LaboratoryWFZ:Suzuki:Sato:Tanaka Creator:Yamada Reviewed:Suzuki To:Sato”. If thereviewer rejects the workflow document, the tags are updated to“Invention_Report XYZ_Laboratory WFZ:Suzuki:Sato:Tanaka Creator:YamadaRejected:Suzuki To:Yamada”.

Referring back to FIG. 19, the workflow status management unit 17 of themetadata management unit 1 requests the RSS generating unit 14 togenerate an RSS feed (step S178) and the RSS generating unit 14generates and delivers the RSS feed (step S179).

<Tag Entry Assistance Mechanism>

FIG. 21A shows an exemplary configuration of a tag management unit 6 forautomatically presenting tags. FIG. 21B shows an example of a tagmanagement database 62. As shown in FIG. 21A, the tag management unit 6includes a tag management server 61 for responding to accesses via anetwork and a tag management database (DB) 62 for storing tags assignedto users and organizational units. The tag management unit 6 isconnected to the network shown in FIG. 1 and functions as a part of theexemplary workflow system.

Each record in the tag management DB 62 includes an ID for identifyingthe record, a user or an organizational unit, and tags assigned to theuser or the organizational unit.

FIG. 22 is a sequence chart showing an exemplary process of registeringa workflow document in the exemplary workflow system including the tagmanagement unit 6. Steps following the exemplary process shown in FIG.22 are substantially the same as those shown in FIG. 12.

As shown in FIG. 22, when the creator sends a request to register aworkflow document to the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 from the user terminal 5 (step S201), the user requesthandling unit 11 requests the authentication server 41 of theauthentication unit 4 to authenticate the creator (step S202). Theauthentication server 41 requests the UI generating unit 13 of themetadata management unit 1 to generate an authentication UI (step S203).The UI generating unit 13 generates an authentication UI and sends it tothe user request handling unit 11 (step S204). Then, the user requesthandling unit 11 sends the authentication UI to the user terminal 5(step S205).

When the creator enters an ID and a password on the authentication UIusing the user terminal 5 (step S206), the user request handling unit 11of the metadata management unit 1 sends the entered authenticationinformation to the authentication server 41 of the authentication unit 4(step S207). The authentication server 41 checks the authenticationinformation against information stored in theorganization/authentication DB (steps 208 and 209), and if the creatoris a legitimate user, sends the authentication information to the userrequest handling unit 11 of the metadata management unit 1 (steps S210).

The user request handling unit 11 of the metadata management unit 1sends the authentication information to the tag management server 61 ofthe tag management unit 6 (step S211). The tag management server 61retrieves a list of tags assigned to the corresponding user ororganizational unit from the tag management DB 62 (steps S212 and S213)and sends the list to the user request handling unit 11 of the metadatamanagement unit 1 (step S214).

When receiving the list of tags, the user request handling unit 11requests the UI generating unit to generate a registration UI (stepS215). The UI generating unit 13 generates a registration UI and sendsit to the user request handling unit 11 (step S216). Then, the userrequest handling unit 11 sends the registration UI to the user terminal5 (step S217). The registration UI generated in step S216 issubstantially the same as that shown in FIG. 13 except that the tagsobtained from the tag management unit 6 are automatically entered in thetag entry field 503.

Referring back to FIG. 22, the creator enters a document name and a URLof the workflow document on the registration UI using the user terminal5 (in this case, tags are already entered) and clicks on the “DisplayWF” button 505 (requests to register the workflow document and todisplay a workflow) (step S218). Then, the user request handling unit 11of the metadata management unit 1 sends a request for registration ofthe workflow document together with the document name and the URL to thedocument registration WWW server 31 of the document registration unit 3(step S219). The document registration WWW server 31 requests the userterminal 5 to upload the workflow document via the user request handlingunit 11 of the metadata management unit 1 (steps S220 and S221).

In response to the request, the user terminal 5 sends the workflowdocument to the document registration WWW server 31 of the documentregistration unit 3 (step S222). The document registration WWW server 31registers the workflow document in the document registration DB 32 (stepS223). Then, the document registration WWW server sends a registrationreport and an ID of the registered workflow document (document ID) tothe user request handling unit 11 of the metadata management unit 1(step S224).

FIG. 23 shows another example of a registration UI. With thisregistration UI, a creator can specify tags by selecting document typebuttons and organizational unit buttons. The registration UI shown inFIG. 23 includes a document name entry field 531 for entering thedocument name of a workflow document, a document URL entry field 532 forentering a URL indicating the registration destination of the workflowdocument (e.g. a URL indicating a location on the document registrationWWW server 31), a document type selection field 533 includingcategorized buttons indicating document types (buttons are representedby rectangles containing document types such as “Budget”, “Purchase”,“Technical”, and “Sales”), an organizational unit selection field 534including buttons indicating organizational units (buttons arerepresented by rectangles containing organizational units such as “XYZLaboratory” and “ABC Branch”), and a “Display WF” button 535 forsearching for and displaying a workflow based on the conditionsspecified in the above fields.

FIG. 24 shows exemplary code describing relationships between tags andbuttons representing the document types and organizational units on theregistration UI shown in FIG. 23. The exemplary code shown in FIG. 24includes for each organizational unit a description D1 enclosed between“<dept . . . >” and “</dept>”. The description D1 includes a descriptionD2 enclosed between “<doc_type>” and “</doc_type>”. The description D2includes for each category a description D3 enclosed between “<item . .. ” and “</item>”. Further, the description D3 includes multipledescriptions D4 enclosed between “<button” and “>”. Each of thedescriptions D4 defines a button and a tag assigned to the button.

In the first line of the description D1 provided for each organizationalunit, a label such as “XYZ Laboratory” is specified as the value of anattribute “name”. In the first line of the description D3 provided foreach category, a label such as “Accounting” is specified as the value ofan attribute “name”. In the description D4 provided for each button, alabel such as “Budget” is specified as the value of an attribute “name”,and a tag such as “Budget_Document” is specified as the value of anattribute “tag”.

The code described above is stored in the metadata management unit 1(alternatively, the code may be stored in another server). The UIgenerating unit 13 obtains a list of organizational units from thevalues of the attributes “name” of the descriptions D1, and generates,based on the obtained list, HTML data representing the organizationalunit selection field 534 of FIG. 23 including organizational unitbuttons. The UI generating unit 13 also obtains a list of categoriesfrom the values of the attributes “name” of the descriptions D3, obtainsa list of document types from the values of the attributes “name” of thedescriptions D4, and generates, based on the obtained lists, HTML datarepresenting the document type selection field 533 of FIG. 23 includingdocument type buttons. When there are duplicates in the lists ofcategories and document types obtained from the descriptions D1 ofmultiple organizational units, the UI generating unit 13 sorts andmerges the items in each of the lists before generating the HTML data.

When a user clicks on the buttons in the document type selection field533 and the organizational unit selection field 534, corresponding tagsare selected according to the relationship shown in FIG. 24. Forexample, when a user clicks on “Budget” in the document type selectionfield 533 and on “XYZ Laboratory” in the organizational unit selectionfield 534, the first one of the descriptions D1 shown in FIG. 24 isidentified based on the organizational unit “XYZ Laboratory” and the tag“Budget_Document” is selected based on the document type “Budget”.

SUMMARY

As described above, embodiments of the present invention provide thefollowing advantages:

(1) A creator of a workflow document can determine a workflow just byattaching intuitive tags indicating the content of the workflowdocument. Therefore, a workflow system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention makes it easier to determine a workflow compared witha conventional workflow system where a creator of a workflow documenthas to determine a workflow by referring to rules in one's organization.

(2) A workflow system of an embodiment of the present invention does notemploy a dedicated architecture for handling workflow documents andtasks. Therefore, the system

-   -   Does not require complicated maintenance.    -   Allows using a normal Web browser as a client.    -   Has high flexibility and scalability.    -   Can cooperate even with a document management system having no        workflow function.

(3) An RSS reader has a function to periodically obtain RSS feeds.Therefore, using an RSS feeder eliminates the need to request the usersto review and/or approve workflow documents by, for example, sendingemails. This improves efficiency of information delivery in a workflowsystem.

(4) Using an RSS reader makes it easier for a user to browsereview/approval requests and thereby improves working efficiency.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a workflow managementmethod that makes it unnecessary for a user to determine a workflow byoneself.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a highly flexibleand highly scalable workflow management apparatus that makes itunnecessary for a user to determine a workflow by oneself.

In the present application, the user request handling unit 11, themetadata managing unit 12, the UI generating unit 13, the workflowdetermination requesting unit 16, the workflow status management unit17, and the workflow determining unit 2 may correspond to a workflowstarting unit. Also in the present application, the user requesthandling unit 11, the metadata managing unit 12, the UI generating unit13, the RSS generating unit 14, and the workflow status management unit17 may correspond to a review/approval unit.

The present invention is not limited to the specifically disclosedembodiments, and variations and modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention.

1. A management method, implemented on a management apparatus, themanagement method comprising: registering, at the management apparatus,one or more tags for determining a workflow in association with adocument based on a received input from a user; determining, at themanagement apparatus, the workflow for the document based on the one ormore tags; retrieving, at the management apparatus, a document type tagfor filtering the document, a participant tag indicating a participantof the workflow, and a status tag indicating a status of the workflowfrom a tag definition database; and registering, at the managementapparatus, the participant tag and the status tag in association withthe document.
 2. The management method as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising: delivering, at the management apparatus, metadata of thedocument to a corresponding participant based on the participant tag torequest review or approval of the document.
 3. The management method asclaimed in claim 2, wherein the document is identified by searching adatabase of documents based on a tag specified in a request for metadataand the metadata of the identified document are delivered.
 4. Themanagement method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:authenticating a user when the user tries to register the document orwhen the user tries to review and/or approve the document and allowing asubsequent process if the user is a legitimate user. The managementmethod as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: obtaining definitionsof the status tag and the participant tag from the tag definitiondatabase containing the definitions when confirming a status and aparticipant of the workflow during the review and/or approval or whenattaching or updating the status tag and the participant tag.
 6. Themanagement method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: determiningthe one or more tags for determining the workflow based on a user nameand/or an organizational unit of a user.
 7. The management method asclaimed in claim 1, further comprising: determining the one or more tagsfor determining the workflow based on a document type and/or anorganizational unit selected by a user.
 8. A management apparatus,comprising: a non-transitory memory configured to store a tag definitiondatabase; and a workflow starting unit configured to register one ormore tags for determining a workflow in association with a documentbased on a received input from a user, to determine the workflow for thedocument based on the one or more tags; to retrieve a document type tagfor filtering the document, a participant tag indicating a participantof the workflow, and a status tag indicating a status of the workflowfrom the tag definition database, and to register the participant tagand the status tag in association with the document.
 9. The managementapparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising: a review/approvalunit configured to deliver metadata of the document to a correspondingparticipant based on the participant tag to request review or approvalof the document.
 10. The management apparatus as claimed in claim 9,wherein the review/approval unit is configured to identify the documentby searching a database of documents based on a tag specified in arequest for metadata and to deliver the metadata of the identifieddocument.
 11. The management apparatus as claimed in claim 9, furthercomprising: an authentication unit configured to authenticate a userwhen the user tries to register the document or when the user tries toreview and/or approve the document and to allow a subsequent process ifthe user is a legitimate user.
 12. The management apparatus as claimedin claim 9, further comprising: a tag analysis unit configured to obtaindefinitions of the status tag and the participant tag from the tagdefinition database for use by the workflow starting unit to attach thestatus tag and the participant tag to the document or for use by thereview/approval unit to confirm a status and a participant of theworkflow during the review and/or approval or to update the status tagand the participant tag.
 13. The management apparatus as claimed inclaim 8, further comprising: a tag management unit configured todetermine the one or more tags for determining the workflow based on auser name and/or an organizational unit of a user.
 14. The managementapparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising: a tag managementunit configured to determine the one or more tags for determining theworkflow based on a document type and/or an organizational unit selectedby a user.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storinga program for causing a computer to perform a management method, themanagement method comprising: registering one or more tags fordetermining a workflow in association with a document based on areceived input from a user; determining the workflow for the documentbased on the one or more tags; retrieving a document type tag forfiltering the document, a participant tag indicating a participant ofthe workflow, and a status tag indicating a status of the workflow froma tag definition database; and registering the participant tag and thestatus tag in association with the document.